Thursday, July 16, 2015

Shepherdstown Edition: The Press Room

Shepherdstown is home to a number of fantastic restaurants, so it was tough to narrow down the options. If only there were more meals in the day.

The Press Room stood out to me on name alone. Some quick research finds that the restaurant is in the former Independent Building, which house the local newspaper's printing press. The owner named the restaurant in honor of the building's history.

The Press Room has a comfortable, yet classy interior with exposed brick walls and lovely finishes. They have a menu outside the building so you can look over to see if anything strikes your fancy that evening. On this visit, appetizers like house pate, mushrooms stuffed with Italian sausage and mussels with white wine tomato and spinach were available. There are delicious soups and salads on the menu: sweet corn and clam chowder, oyster stew, gorgonzola custard salad, and roasted beet salad, amongst others.

We started out with some bread and butter, which wasn't much of note.

My main entree was grilled sea scallops, with a wild mushroom risotto, green beans and a side of pickled red onion and sweet peppers. I loved these. They were smooth, buttery, and I loved the addition of the mushroom risotto. A little bit more of a sear would have been fine, but the deep earthy flavors of the risotto were perfect with the fresh seafood, and the sweet onion and peppers were a perfect addition.

Tony ordered a grilled hanger steak, which he wasn't crazy about, but found it good enough.

I might be biased with the history of the building, but between my delicious meal and the lovely atmosphere, I'm very happy this was my selection for dinner the one night I had in Shepherdstown.Grade: A

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The WV Pepperoni Roll

The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll is a comprehensive history of the unofficial state food of West Virginia. It tells the story of the immigrants, business owners, and more who have devoured this simple yet practical food since its invention. Order here.